NBA Celebrates World Autism Awareness Day

We are thrilled to have the National Basketball Association partnering with us to celebrate World Autism Awareness Day. The league, teams, and players will be showing their support for World Autism Awareness Day and raising awareness of autism. NBA coaches and local broadcasters will be sporting the Autism Speaks lapel puzzle pin. And NBA TV will be lighting their studio blue on April 2nd.

The NBA has been so generous and creative in raising awareness for autism, and here are some of the ways! Several team arenas and surrounding locations will be lit up blue. Puzzle piece cookies will be on sale, Autism Speaks public service announcements will be broadcasts on jumbo vision screens and Autism Speaks concourse tables will be set up to readily hand out information to fans. Some teams are donating a portion of ticket sales to Autism Speaks, while others are turning their interior lights blue during halftime!

Thank you so much to the National Basketball Association, NBA Cares, and all of the teams and players involved in World Autism Awareness Day! And don’t miss the NBA Cares video below with Tim Duncan of the San Antonio Spurs and Dwight Howard of the Orlando Magic.

THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR JOINING OUR FIGHT TO FIND THAT MISSING PIECE FOR OUR FAMILY MEMBERS WHO CANT FIGHT THE FIGHT THEMSELVES JUST YET.I SAID THANK YOU WITH TEARS OF JOY.FOR MY 5YR OLD SON FREDDIE HE IS NON VERBAL NOW BUT ONE DAY HE WILL TALK IKNOW ITS BECAUSE OF THE LOVE AN CARE O PEOPLE LIKE YOU WHO CARED ENOUGH TO HELP <3 :)

Upcoming event to support Autism: Black Tie Masquerade Ball and Comedy Show! 50% of the proceeds will be donated to the Autism Society for awareness etc.
For more details/ tickets/ sponsorship etc click here: http://mandyjbennett.blogspot.comhttp://www.sopacnow.org
April 23rd, 2011 @ 7pm at the SOPAC, NJ.

I want to thank you all from the bottom of my heart! I have two young daughters with autism and ever since I learned of their diagnosis, I have been fighting for them and fighting to educate our community on autism. I was praying that someone with a big voice would speak up for my child with no voice and I stumbled upon this article. The NBA will be supporting my children! Our children!And with your united very loud voice, we will be heard! Thank you so much for caring enough to let the world know that my girls matter!

Thanks for your support on autism and my lil princess Jazmin age 6….. We started watchin basketball and tha “Rockets” this season and already everything is awesome and this “NBACares” just makes it the icin on tha top!!!!!!!!!! xoxo Susie

WHAT A BEAUTIFUL DAY. MY Devin has been watching NBA since 1987, His face lights up to this day when Tim Duncan and Michael Jordan comes on the TV screen. Devin is 25 years-old living with this thing called AUTISM when he watched NBA last night and saw his favorite All Star Tim Duncan play the game, that’s when we noticed the PUZZLE pin. I knew then something special was going on in the NBA. From One SUPERSTAR to another, Thank you NBA, Players, Coaches, Trainers and Executive staff for caring about Autism. YOU ARE SUPERSTARS

SO wonderful. My 9 year old guy is a huge Milwaukee Bucks fan (his “special interest” is sports teams) and we are so excited that we can attend tomorrow night.
Thank you NBA and thank you Bucks! SO awesome!

My 15yr Autistic son loves basketball, cutting to the basket and going to Mavs games with his mom and me. We even watch on TV and basketball has opened new doors of communication for me as his father and in communicating with players on his Special Olympics team.

However, the SO season passes so quickly, he would love for NBA/Autism Speaks to get together and maybe start a camp geared for him and others like him. Since he learns differently, he finds it hard to follow at a typical skills camp where a single leader shouts out commands and quickly changes from left to right, before my son masters left.

It would be great if the NBA could create a separate camp for special needs kids or facilitate a shorter training day with a parent and their kid (perhaps instead of a 5 day camp). From the posts above, some kids latch on to the sport, but might embrace the chance to build their basketball skills to the point of it being a social activity perhaps with more typical kids in the future. Thanks for what you do and hope it evolves into something more.